Jeffrey Lurie

(MCT) - Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie tied the knot this weekend with Tina Lai in small ceremony. Lai, who was born in 1973, took over managing Vietnam Restaurant in 2008 from her brother, Benny Lai, but no longer works at the Chinatown staple. "We're very excited for Tina and Jeffrey," said a rep for the family, who also owns Vietnam Cafe in West Philadelphia, adding that they would like to keep the matter personal. Lai is the youngest of eight siblings. The marriage took place in Charleston, S.C., according to a tweet from former Eagles linebacker/current 610 WIP host Garry Cobb.

This could have been Jeffrey Lurie's empire. The native New Englander and current Eagles owner tried to buy the Patriots before he ever thought of the Eagles. Only after he was unsuccessful here did he turn his attention toward Philadelphia. But on Tuesday, as he looked out over the joint practice between his team and the Patriots, he reiterated how he couldn't have been happier with the way things have worked out. "I've never actually looked back on it," he said.

Giving Michael Vick a second chance and planning to turn Lincoln Financial Field into a self-sufficient energy alternative stadium brought a surprise phone call to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Sports Illustrated writer Peter King reported that President Obama called Lurie recently to praise the Eagles for giving Vick a second chance after he was released from jail following his 18-month sentence for running a dog-fighting ring. Obama spokesman Bill Burton says the president told owner Jeffrey Lurie that while he condemns the crimes Vick was convicted of, he believes people who have paid for their crimes should have the opportunity to contribute to society again.

- Praise flowed from the top Wednesday at Philadelphia Eagles training camp, as owner Jeffrey Lurie expressed his extreme satisfaction with the state of his rebuilt team under second-year coach Chip Kelly. He is most pleased with the team approach Kelly has created both inside the locker room and with the organization as a whole. "I feel really lucky to have a coach and a coaching staff that is really dynamic," Lurie said in an impromptu news conference following practice. "I think of the reasons why he and his staff have been so successful is that it's just such a team approach.

Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, will be the keynote speaker at the Bethlehem Area Chamber of Commerce's 79th annual dinner at 5:30 p.m. May 28. The dinner will be at Lehigh University's Stabler Arena and is co-sponsored by Deiter Brothers Fuel Co. and Trans-Bridge Lines. Lurie will discuss the economic impact the Eagles will have on Bethlehem's South Side and tourist destinations when the team begins training camp at Lehigh University's Goodman Campus in July. In addition to Lurie's address, the Chamber will present its Ambassador, Athena, Priscilla Payne Hurd and Marcon awards.

Donovan McNabb admitted he got a little overexcited back in preseason when he played in his first professional game. He promised it's not going to happen again today. Today he's going to try to follow his parents' advice to just go out and "have fun," which may mean that he'll be the only person in Veterans Stadium with an interest in the Philadelphia Eagles who won't be intensely worried about how he performs. Gnawing at their fingernails the hardest will be the members of the Eagles organization who aren't in uniform, the front office and Head Coach Andy Reid.

Corey Simon, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is calling. And you might want to listen, because he's not sounding so player-friendly all of a sudden. Lurie, who likes to be known as a player-friendly owner, turned on the charm for the media between training camp sessions at Lehigh University Wednesday, and while his tone was warm, his words were not. "He devalues himself every day he's not here,` Lurie said during a wide-ranging interview that included...

EAGLES LINEBACKER DHANI JONES waits for his turn to be introduced to the rabid fans. JEFFREY LURIE, ANDY REID AND DONOVAN McNABB finally get to stand alongside the George S. Halas Trophy. EAGLES RUNNING BACK DORSEY LEVENScelebrates his first-quarter touchdown. Levens was helped into the end zone by offensive lineman Jermane Mayberry. EAGLES RUNNING BACK BRIAN WESTBROOK breaks away from Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking in the second half.

Longtime Philadelphia Eagles president Joe Banner will be taking on a new role as the team makes some key executive changes, according to the Eagles team web site. Banner will become Strategic Advisor to the Owner, Jeffrey Lurie. Chief Operating Officer Don Smolenski will assume the role of team president. Lurie will announce the changes at a press conference today at 2:30 p.m. See the statement by the team on www.philadelphiaeagles.com.

To the Editor: Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles. They were able to overcome the horrible conditions of Veterans Stadium and beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 31 to move onto the second round of the playoffs. Now that they have proved they can win in the post-season please send all of my Pennsylvania income tax money to the Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie, so he can build the team a new stadium! They deserve my hard-earned dollars. Edward Figuli Jr. Lynn Township

— Speaking for the first time since releasing star wide receiver DeSean Jackson last month, Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly said the decision had nothing to do with character or off-field issues. "We were going in a different direction at the wide receiver position," he said during an appearance at the team's playground renovation project at Prince Hall Elementary School. "… It had nothing to do with anything that was ever written in newspaper articles or any off-field behavior from him. DeSean was great the year that I was with him. We wish him nothing but the best.

He strode quickly through the ballroom of the posh Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes shortly after sunrise Wednesday morning and was greeted by a throng of reporters and television cameras. Under his breath, you could hear Eagles coach Chip Kelly mutter, "You've got to be [kidding] me. " Some veteran NFL writers said they hadn't seen such a crowd gathered for one coach since 2008, when Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots had some answering to do for the Spygate incident. And Kelly arrived at 7:15 a.m. It was only seconds after Kelly took his seat at the annual NFC coaches breakfast during the owner's meetings when he went where the other two members of the Eagles' brain trust refused to go in the days leading up to Kelly's rare offseason appearance — to the subject of DeSean Jackson.

The good news for Eagles fans is that there will be about 1,600 new seats available at Lincoln Financial Field next season. The bad news is that ticket prices are going up for more than half of the seats at the 11-year-old stadium. The Eagles announced Thursday that the second phase of the ongoing stadium renovation project will add the new seats and include the installation of new HD video boards and LED ribbon boards. All of the work is on pace to be completed by the time the Eagles play their regular-season opener.

When Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie turned his $1.16-billion franchise over to a new head coach who had never been in the NFL before, he already had a good idea that Chip Kelly's pro inexperience would not be an issue. What he didn't expect was how quickly Kelly would be able to turn around the football team, leading the Eagles to a 10-6 record and the NFC East title in his first season. Lurie had asked for patience from fans in transitioning from former coach Andy Reid to Kelly, saying at the time that building a championship contender would take years, not months.

- So many changes already had taken place within the Philadelphia Eagles' organization by the time they found the man who would complete the process of turning everything around. Owner Jeffrey Lurie and his new brain trust of general manager Howie Roseman and president Don Smolenski didn't necessarily set out last January to bring in a head coach with innovative schemes. But they wanted someone with a fresh, exciting and sound approach to running a program in today's NFL. That Chip Kelly had never spent a minute in the league didn't really matter.

PHILADELPHIA — I don't know Eagles receiver Riley Cooper, so I certainly don't know him well enough to judge whether his apology for using a racial slur was from his heart or from his head. What I have learned, however, is that it is usually best to let emotion and shock value wear down a bit before drawing any true opinion on what an incident may or may not truly mean. "I am so ashamed and disgusted with myself," Cooper tweeted after a video of him using the "n-word" went viral Wednesday after being released by crossingbroad.com.

— NFL owners are arriving at a hotel near Atlanta's airport to discuss and possibly vote on a deal to end the lockout that began in March. Jeffrey Lurie of the Eagles and Mike Brown of the Bengals are among the owners present Thursday morning. The league has said it hopes to have a final agreement with players ready for ratification Thursday. Players had been expected to vote Wednesday on a full proposal to settle the labor dispute, but they did not. Even after all acceptable terms are established, a deal would lead to a collective bargaining agreement only if NFL Players Association team reps recommend re-establishing the group as a union, which must be approved by a majority vote of the 1,900 players.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Eagles today unfurled plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their last NFL championship at the site where they captured it all. In a news conference at the University of Pennsylvania, owner Jeffrey Lurie and team president Joe Banner announced a series of events on opening weekend to honor the 1960 squad. Bethlehem's Chuck Bednarik was a star on the 1960 Eagles team, playing linebacker on defense and center on offense. A halftime ceremony on Sept.

- A clearly shaken Riley Cooper stood before a cluster of cameras and microphones on Wednesday and apologized for a recent racial outburst that was captured on video and went viral when released by the website Crossingbroad.com hours earlier. The fourth-year wide receiver out of the University of Florida, alma mater of general manager Howie Roseman, said he was "extremely embarrassed, extremely hurt and extremely sorry for my actions. ... I'm willing to accept any consequences. I'm extremely sorry.

The hard feelings have eroded over time, thanks in large part to a Monday ceremony during which the Philadelphia Eagles retired Donovan McNabb's number five and he officially retired as an Eagle. But his doubts about who was behind his departure from the organization in 2010 remain. The starting quarterback for all or parts of 11 seasons told reporters after Monday's news conference that his phone conversation with then coach Andy Reid on the day he was traded revealed no answer, and he's still curious about how the whole thing went down.